Keep reading for 17 easy end of year art activities!

Artist Trading Cards

What are Artist Trading Cards? ATCs are miniature works of art that are 2.5″ x 3.5″. They are made to be collected and traded. You can make them with any theme or material you’d like. Anything goes! Kids love to create miniature works of art. Some of my students like to make cards that are inspired by the card games Pokemon or Magic, characters with special abilities and powers.

The ATCs in these two pictures are ones that I recently made.

I used to regularly swap and collect ATCs. Here are some examples from my Artist Trading Card collection!

Here is an easy doodled ATC tutorial if you don’t know where to start.

I have some Artist Trading Card templates here and some All About Me templates here. If you’d like to buy pre-made blank cards, the Apostrophe brand (Amazon Affiliate links are used in this post) is my favorite. I have tested MANY of the blank ATC brands on Amazon and these are my favorite for most media. Some of the other brands are really bad and smear terribly. Sharpies and collage work best on the cards.

You can also make ATCs just by cutting cardstock paper down to 2.5″ x 3.5″, but I feel like that can be tedious. Another option is to draw out a sheet of artist trading cards (either with a ruler or by tracing an existing card), photocopy on to cardstock and have the students cut out their own cards.

Kids also like drawing on blank index cards, so that is another option for miniature artworks.

Mini Sketchbooks for an End of the Year Art Class

Miniature art is so much fun! Just like artist trading cards, mini sketchbooks are especially appealing to kids. My students loved making them and many even asked for extra books to take home and continue filling with drawings.

I saw this idea shared in a Facebook group, and the theme in the post was “Things That Bring Me Joy.” The pages were filled with drawings of things that make the artist happy. I wish I could remember which teacher originally shared the idea… if it was you, please let me know so I can give proper credit!

I gave this theme suggestion to my students, but they had freedom to make pages with any theme they wanted. Here is the box of 50 mini sketchbooks on Amazon. The pages are pretty thin and markers bled through to the other side. But you could use crayons or colored pencils.

End of Year Art Memory Books & Zines

Just like mini sketchbooks, mini foldable books are also a huge hit with kids! Accordion books and zines are fun, flexible and interactive art projects that give students lots of creative freedom.

I just finished writing a comprehensive beginner’s guide to zines! Check out the blog post if you’d like to learn more about what zines are, different ways to make them, and ideas for using them in the classroom.

If you’re looking for a quick print-and-go activity, you might also like the Memory Book templates I created. They include easy accordion book and zine-style activities that are simple to prep and fun for students.

End of the Year Coloring Banners

Easy End of the Year Art Centers

Art centers are always a favorite with kids, and they’re relatively easy to pull out during those busy end-of-year days.

If you don’t already have many center activities, summer garage sales can be a great place to look for inexpensive materials like building toys, blocks, puzzles and other hands-on creative supplies.

Here are some of my students’ favorite art centers:

• Pipe cleaners and pony beads
• Shape punchers
• Lego bricks
• Building toys like wooden blocks, magnetic tiles, magnetic blocks
• Texture plate rubbings
• Washi tape or stickers
• Origami

I have compiled 43 different art center ideas in these Art Center Signs. Even if you don’t want the signs, if you click through to the listing and look at the preview, you can see the list of all the center ideas.

Washi Tape Designs

This blog post explains what I mean by using washi tape.

Basically what we did was peel and stick different washi tape designs. Then, we used Kwik Stix to color in the sections. Some of the students enjoyed peeling the tape off and others left it.

If you are going to peel it off, you need to place it a few times on your pants to get it a little fuzzy and less sticky, so it doesn’t tear the paper.

Sidewalk Chalk Creations

Drawing with sidewalk chalk is a classic end of year art activity. Here are a few ideas:

• Choose a theme for your students to draw or leave it open-ended.

• Write positive messages.

• Create hopscotch style games and pathways for kids to walk and travel on.

• Create a giant chalk town – add houses, cars, roads, shops and more.

• Write farewell messages and thank you notes to teachers.

• Draw a mandala.

• Make a summer themed chalk mural.

• Create a drawing with one long continuous line.

Art Game – Pass the Page Doodles

How this works: The goal is to fill a piece of paper with a page of doodles in one theme.

Each student has their own piece of paper. They choose the theme for their paper. Write that theme on the top of the paper or the back of the paper.

They start the drawing with something in that theme. Then they pass it to the person next to them. That person adds something to the page of doodles, keeping the same theme going. Keep passing around the room until everyone’s page is filled up!

Theme Ideas: weird monsters, summer things, cats, tiny foods, silly faces

Outdoor Observational Drawing

Go outside with a clipboard, pencil and coloring materials. Here are some ideas for what to draw:

• Give students a nature scavenger hunt and then they can draw the items they find.

• Draw the playground.

• Draw the clouds or a landscape scene of what they see.

• Draw the school building and then turn it into: a castle, a spaceship, an underwater school, or a monster headquarters!

• Or, you can just sit outside and draw whatever you like. Sometimes a change in scenery can be a great way to jumpstart creativity.

Bookmarks

Design a bookmark on a blank card. My students LOVED these. The tassels make them extra fun.

Free Growth Mindset bookmarks!

Kindness Coloring Bookmarks

Of course, precut bookmarks from cardstock will also work! Hole punch and attach some ribbon.

Art with Nature

Go outside and gather up some natural materials such as leaves, grass, sticks and wildflowers. Create art on the ground using the natural materials you found.

Another option is to glue these materials to a piece of paper. Add drawings and additional details using paint or other art supplies.

Here are some ideas in an old blog post with three art examples that involve drawing leaves, ink spraying leaves and collages with leaves.

Paper Hats with Scraps

Use up the paper scraps leftover from the year’s projects!

Cut a wide strip of construction paper that is long enough to go around a child’s head. Use different paper manipulation methods to create a fun paper sculpture hat. Glue these to the band.

When finished, adjust the band to fit a child’s head and then staple it together! If you need some ideas for paper techniques, I have an example of a paper techniques on a poster here!

The picture below is from when my own kid was in early elementary school and did this during a summer art class. After this, I tried it with my own students and it’s pretty fun!

Recycled Art Sculpture

Here’s another highly engaging art project for kids: building recycled art sculptures, either independently or in groups.

This activity can be a great way to use up your recycled donations such as paper towel tubes, popsicle sticks, corks, wooden scraps, egg cartons, bottle caps, and any other found materials you have available.

For these sculptures, we glued the pieces together first and let them dry. Once dry, the students painted them and added embellishments such as sequins, feathers and other decorative details.

I’ve found that kids love building and everyone loves this open-ended activity.

Shrinky Dinks

If you haven’t tried shrinky dinks, these are always a crowd-pleaser! This is also a great project for summer camps. I’ve found that coloring with paint markers looks really nice, but you can use other drawing materials like colored pencils. I bake these in my oven at home. Follow the manufacturers’ directions carefully and never let a student operate any sort of oven.

A tip for baking: the natural baking process involves them curling up. When they are curling, leave them in longer. They should uncurl on their own and then you know they are ready. If they are slightly stuck, I use a metal butter knife to pull them apart and press them down to flatten them.

Summer Sun with Sunglasses

This cool sun with shades is perfect for the end of the school year or even for summer art classes!

The sun was made with Kwik Stix paint sticks and the sunglasses were colored with markers.

Find the full lesson tutorial and sunglasses templates at my TPT.

Summer Bucket List

Looking for an easy end of year activity that you can just print and hand your students? Have your students create and draw their own summer bucket lists!

Students can fill the bucket with drawings of things they want to do over the summer.

This FREE download includes both a blank version and a prompted version. A beach ball outline is also included, which students can color, design however they’d like or fill with even more summer-themed drawings.

Summer Bucket List

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Wave Goodbye to Kindergarten!

This is one of my favorite end of year projects for Kindergarten. I do it almost every year.

On the first day, create a page of fingerprints.

To do this, dip ONE finger into a cup of water. Then, rub your finger around in a watercolor pan. Make fingerprints across the page.

After the fingerprints have dried, trace your hand on construction paper and cut it out. Glue it to your paper.

Cut out the printed poem and glue that down!

The poem and full tutorial is available at this Kindergarten Wave Goodbye blog post.

I hope this has given you some good ideas for the end of the year in art class!

The post Easy End of Year Art Activities for Kids (Simple Art Projects with Low-Mess!) appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

What Is a Zine?

A zine (short for magazine or fanzine) is a small, self-published booklet that people create and distribute in limited quantities. They are DIY projects made by hand with simple tools such as a photocopier or home printer. Many are low-cost to print, stapled or bound together with simple methods.

One of the fun things about them is that there’s no single “right” way for them to look. That’s why I love to make zines with kids. Here are a few from my own collection for inspiration.

Zines can be all different shapes and sizes. They can be color, black and white or collaged. They are personal, expressive and may be based on a special interest.

My favorite kinds of zines to collect are ones with art and collage.

On the right, the zine I am holding is a collection of sketches by the artist Andrea Joseph.

People make these booklets to share their thoughts, tell stories, express opinions, or connect with others who share similar interests. They are often shared or traded with others.

Why Make Zines?

They give students a chance to be creative without worrying about making everything perfect. Each one turns out completely different, which makes them feel personal and unique.

• They are an easy, super low-prep art activity.
• They build confidence, since there are no wrong ways to make a zine.
• Zines are open-ended and encourage self-expression.
• The materials are inexpensive – simple copy paper works well.
• They are flexible and work for a wide range of ages.
• Students stay engaged and motivated.

What Can You Put in a Zine?

This is what makes zines so much fun – there are so many different directions students can take with these. Each page could be completely different or they can all go together with one theme. You can keep it totally open-ended or give a little structure depending on your group.

• Drawings and doodles
• Collage
• Comics
• Stories
• Quotes, poems or song lyrics
• Lists
• Personal observations and reflections
• Opinions about a cause

Zine Materials

You probably have everything you need to get started.

• White copy paper
• Markers, colored pencils, crayons
• Scissors and glue

Optional materials:

• Patterned or colored paper scraps
• Magazine pictures
• Stickers (Amazon Affiliate links) or Washi tape
• Collage ephemera
• Zine templates & How to fold handout

Zine Ideas for Kids

• End of Year Reflection Zine
• All About Me
• My favorites…
• A comic about a story that happened in my life
• An imaginative story
• A collage of quotes

How to Make a Zine

The video from Tate Kids is so great at explaining to kids what zines are!

A few things that help this go smoothly:

• Show a few examples (even simple ones).
• Offer both blank pages and optional prompts.
• Emphasize that there is no wrong way.
• Let fast finishers keep going with more zines.
• If you’re using templates, print extras. You’ll have kids who want to make more than one.

Step 1: Fold Your Paper

Fold the paper so it creates 8 small pages.

If you want to make this part even smoother, you can use a pre-made template so students can jump right into creating.

It’s important to understand how the order of the pages will end up after you fold. Here is a guide. This guide is also included in the Free Artist Quote zine download (below).

Step 2: Plan Your Zine

Choose a theme and plan out what you want on each page. Start by lightly sketching ideas or create a quick rough draft.

Step 3: Create

Draw, write, color or collage! Encourage students to fill the page and add lots of details.

Step 4: Display and Share

After finishing, photocopy the booklets to share with others – students love trading! Don’t forget to make a copy for yourself to add to your classroom zine library. They also look great displayed standing open in a display case or on a shelf.

How to Fold a Zine

Here’s my video all about how to fold a zine. A step-by-step handout is also available in my zine template resources.

Free Artist Quote Printable Zine

I had so much fun creating this Artist Quote Zine! I have a FREE printable download of this zine just for you. I made this to demonstrate steps of making a zine and then I thought other art teachers might enjoy this! You can print this out, fold it and then use it as an example when you are teaching about zines. You could also print some out for your students if they want a copy.

If you scroll down, you can enter your email address to get your free zine!

How I Made This Artist Quote Zine

Step One: First, I found some art quotes online, typed them up in different fonts and then printed them out. I cut out the quotes using regular and decorative edge scissors.

Step Two: I used magazine images and patterned paper to create backgrounds for my pages

Step Three: Then, I added more collage materials on top of the backgrounds.

Step Four: Finally, I glued on the quotes and then added some stickers for extra fun.

Here is the finished result! I love how it turned out!

Grab your own free copy of this zine. Simply print and fold! This is a great option to use as an example of a zine if you don’t have time to make your own or if you just want another one to add to your collection.

Included in this download is a blank version of the quote zine, which you or your students can color and design your own artist quote zine. The PDF also has a blank zine template and the zine layout which shows you what each page is.

Grab this Printable Zine!

Enter your email for the free printable “Create More Art” zine.

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Zine Templates for Kids

Are you looking for an easy way to teach about zines in your class? I made some prompted zine templates.

The first is an All About Me zine package, with prompts to get to know your students. These are perfect for the beginning of the year or really at any time.

The other two sets are End of the Year memory zines. One is an End of the Year Art Class reflection zine, so kids can share about their year in art. The other set is a general School Year Memories zine. These templates are an easy way to make zines with kids.

Get Monthly Zines Sent to Your Mailbox!

Cindy Ingram, whom I’ve known through blogging and art education for years, recently started a zine subscription club! (affiliate link) She makes a zine every month and sends it via snail mail straight to your mailbox. They are so cooool!

Cindy is an author, artist and founder of Art Class Curator. Her book, Art is About Being Whole, is also available on Amazon. I interviewed Cindy about her book in a previous blog post.

You can sign up for your own subscription here!

If you’ve never tried zines with your students, this is a fun, low-pressure end of year art activity. Let me know if you try it!

More Zine Resources

Zines I bought at last year’s zinefest.

Zines my students made

More zine on my Instagram

The post What Is a Zine? How to Make Zines with Kids appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

Now that Spring is here, you might be looking for art projects that celebrate the fresh air, birds, flowers and signs of the season! I love incorporating the beauty of nature in our art lessons. In this blog post, I will share 13+ Spring art projects for elementary kids that are perfect for the end of the year! These are all ideas that hopefully give you a starting point for developing your own Spring art curriculum. It’s a long blog post, are you ready?

Spring Art Projects for Kids: Birds!

1. Nest of Baby Chicks Spring Art Project

Create a sweet nest of baby chicks! To make the chicks, we traced a roll of masking tape to form the body, then added a smaller traced circle for the head. Students cut out their own beaks and drew on the eyes to give each chick its own personality.

After watching a quick demonstration, students drew their own nests and brought them to life by layering different types of brown textured paper for a realistic, cozy look.

2. Model Magic Bird in a Nest Sculpture

To make this bird sculpture, start by creating the nest. Open a brown paper lunch bag and roll the top edge downward toward the table. Use your fingers to gently shape it into a nest form.

Next, pour a lot of glue inside the nest and fill it with a variety of materials such as tissue paper, yarn, shredded paper, and other textured items.

To form the bird, shape the body, wings and head with Model Magic. You can use colored Model Magic or paint it later! While it’s still soft, poke feathers into the back of the bird. A little bit of liquid glue will help it stay in place. I’m thinking of making a video tutorial of this, let me know if you’d like to see the process.

Spring Flower Art Projects for Elementary Art

Flowers are a beautiful sign of spring! There are so many creative art projects you can explore using flowers as inspiration. I’ve created several of these as full print-and-go resources, complete with tutorials, helpful tips, and ready-to-use templates.

1. Spring Vase of Flowers Art Lesson

With this lesson, you can discuss flower still life paintings throughout art history. Students can draw their own vases by folding the paper in half, tracing one half of the vase and cutting it out to reveal a symmetrical vase.

Use Sharpie markers and watercolor paints to draw and layer your own flowers. Practice drawing types of lines or a variety of shapes on the vase to add in more art concepts.

If you’d like a full tutorial with steps written out, templates and tips, you can check out the Spring Vase of Flowers art lesson, which includes an art history slideshow and step-by-step presentation to use with your students.

2. Spring Flower Wreath – perfect for Mother’s Day or any special occasion!

Create a beautiful wreath of flowers that would be perfect as a gift for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, a special grandparent or other adult. Start by making the base: poke a hole in the center of a paper plate and carefully cut out the middle to form a ring.

Next, draw and paint a variety of flowers in different sizes and colors.

Once they are dry, cut them out and layer them with additional flowers made from solid-colored construction paper.

Stack and combine the flowers to create depth, then glue them onto the wreath. Finish by adding a special message at the bottom to make your wreath extra meaningful.

Want to save time? If you’re looking for a ready-to-use version with templates and guided steps, I’ve included everything in the full flower wreath resource in my TPT shop.

3. 3D Pop-Up Flower Garden – Spring Art Project for Kids

Create a colorful 3D flower garden! Start by folding a long piece of green construction paper into an accordion fold to form the base. Then, draw flowers with Sharpie and paint them using watercolor paints.

Once dry, cut out the flowers and layer them with additional flowers made from solid-colored construction paper. Stacking and layering the pieces adds depth and visual interest to the artwork.

Next, cut out leaves and stems from construction paper and glue them into place. To finish, add a thin strip of green construction paper along the bottom (cut into fringes) to create the look of grass.

If you’d like a ready-to-use version of this lesson with step-by-step directions, templates, and helpful teaching tips, you can find the full resource in my TPT shop.

Watercolor Doodle Flowers

These watercolor doodle flowers were one of my most popular blog posts from the past!

All you need are watercolor paints and some fine tip black pens.

Check out this watercolor doodle flower blog post to see the full tutorial!

If you scroll the carousel below, you can see all of my full Spring art resources, including two Earth Day art projects!

Expressive Flower Drawings Inspired by Takashi Murakami

Your students will love creating their own smiling flower faces inspired by Takashi Murakami’s iconic flower artworks. Simply print out examples of his artwork and see what your kids come up with!

If you need a ready-to-use slideshow about Takashi Murakami, here is a Google slides presentation I made during Covid for a distance learning art project!

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Close-Up Flowers

This is a lesson I have done with 2nd graders! I provide a variety of flower reference images, and students choose one to enlarge and fill an entire square sheet of paper. As they work, I demonstrate how to use variations of a color (such as red, dark orange, light orange, and yellow) to blend and create depth in their flowers.

To enhance the lesson, here are a couple of great read-alouds you can share with your class:

Through Georgia’s Eyes – Rachel Rodríguez (Amazon affiliate links)
My Name is Georgia – Jeanette Winter

Bouquet of Flowers inspired by Picasso

Are you familiar with this lovely, simple artwork by Picasso? I love it so much! This is a very easy project to do with your youngest students. Draw simple stems and flowers using Kwik Stix paint sticks. Trace and cut out hands from construction paper and glue so they are holding the flowers.

Spring Children’s Books to Go Along with Art Projects

If you know me, you know I love a good children’s book! In fact, I’ve written a blog post with 150+ of my favorite books for kids. I’ve gathered up some of my favorite Spring children’s books to share with you! These are beautiful books that are fun to read aloud to introduce a Spring art project. I also have rotating selections of books available for kids to look at during free time.

• Planting a Rainbow is a beautiful book that can go along with a rainbow flower art project or any flower lesson! I love Lois Ehlert’s books.
• Spring Sings for The Grouchy Ladybug is another book from Eric Carle that shows his painted paper collage style. This book is best for the youngest Pre-K & K ages.

• The Hidden Rainbow is a simple counting book showing the colors of the rainbow in the garden.
• The Flower Thief – If you like the Leaf Thief or the the Pumpkin Thief, here’s a Spring version in this series.

These are my two favorite Spring books. If you want to grab any of these books, these would be my top picks.

• Spring Parade is a book with such gorgeous illustrations!

• It’s Spring is also a beautiful book all about Spring. She also books for Winter and Fall. Hopefully, Summer is coming too!

Insect Art Projects

1. Ladybug Collage: Dip a fork in green paint and stamp grass across the paper. Cut a large black circle (body), a large red circle (wings) and a smaller black circle (head). Glue together, then add spots with black Sharpie and eyes with a white gel pen.
2. Ladybug Drawing: Very simple, just show the students how to draw a ladybug on the board and have them draw their own ladybugs. I did this during zoom classes during Covid.
3. Caterpillar Drawing: Teach about rainbow order. Demonstrate how to draw the caterpillar on the board and have the kids follow along, then color in rainbow colors. This was another distance learning lesson.
4. Insect Collage: Offer a variety of colored construction paper. Students will try to make a creative symmetrical insect. Show a diagram or draw a diagram of the parts of the insect (head, abdomen, thorax, antennae). Have them cut out shapes for the insect parts. You can use construction paper crayons, metallic markers, or paint dotters to decorate the insect.

5. Firefly art projects are fun as we get closer to summer. I use neon oil pastels for coloring these in. I have a free tutorial download with handouts for this project.

6. Butterfly Art Projects

I recently wrote a whole blog post all about butterfly art projects and some beautiful children’s books about butterflies.

Check out the butterfly art blog post here!

Insect Children’s Books to Go Along with Art Projects

Looking for a couple of insect books for these lessons?

• How to Build an Insect is a fun book about the parts of an insect and shows a kid building an insect – a great way to tie in a STEM project.
• On Beyond Bugs! is a book from the Dr. Seuss people – their nonfiction books are great!

Looking for even more spring art ideas?

I’ve shared several variations of Symmetrical Butterfly art projects in this blog post that offer plenty of creative inspiration.

This was another open-ended, successful Earth Day project from last year. If your students enjoy working with watercolors, this is a great project to try!

You may also like:

The post 13 Spring Art Projects for Elementary Kids + Spring Book Read Alouds appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

Butterfly Books for Kids

I’m going to start with this one, because it is my absolute favorite of the books I found. This Pop-Up Butterflies book by Usborne is so amazing! The butterflies just pop off the page. I think the pictures speak for themselves. (Amazon Affiliate links have been used, thanks for supporting this blog.) The book is short, but gorgeous. It also gives interesting information about butterflies.

The next book is Papilio, a book about an adorable caterpillar who shows emotions while growing up into a butterfly.

The next book is My, Oh My– A Butterfly! a non-fiction book from the Dr. Seuss people. Most people think of the silly rhyming Dr. Seuss books when they think of Cat in the Hat, but I’ve come across some really great Dr. Seuss non-fiction books. There’s 50 in the series! My other favorite one is the Map book.

Here are two more great butterfly books. A Butterfly is Patient is also a book with beautiful illustrations. There are several other nature books in this series if you like this one.

The last book I wanted to share with you is by Gail Gibbons, called Monarch Butterfly. She also has a lot of non-fiction books for kids and I love her illustrations.

Butterfly Art Projects for Kids

Creating butterfly art is a perfect idea for the younger elementary classes! It is a fun Spring theme and you can introduce symmetry as well as types of lines in this art lesson.

To set the stage, I often do a caterpillar art project where we practice mixing the primary colors to make the secondary colors. We use Model Magic for the mixing. If you have never mixed colors with Model Magic before, the colors mix beautifully together. There’s a lot of different rainbow/color mixing projects you could do with this material.

This butterfly project offers several creative options. The main focus is designing a symmetrical butterfly. Students can draw their own butterflies or use templates.

Different types of media can be used for this project: watercolor paints, markers, colored pencils, metallic markers or paper strips!

Want more butterfly art ideas?

You might like these past posts:

• Butterfly Paintings
• Butterfly Origami gift for a retirement
• Clay Butterflies (I did this one again this year, but did not have them trace their hands, we used templates instead.)

If you’re looking for more Spring art projects, check out my Spring Art Projects Bundle!

The post Butterfly Art Project for Kids + 5 Beautiful Butterfly Books to Inspire Your Lesson appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

Looking for some easy, quick one day elementary art lessons for sub plans? Emergencies happen, and your substitute may not have an art background. The good news is that sub days can still be creative, structured, and meaningful with the right low-prep lesson ideas.

What Makes an Effective Art Sub Plan?

• Clear goals & instructions
• Simple & mess-free art supplies
• Allows students to work independently
• Visual examples

In the next sections, I will share lots of easy elementary art sub plan ideas!

How to Make a Sub Tub for Elementary Art

SUB TUB FREEBIE

This guide will help you get started with 10 easy art activities to leave for a substitute. You’ll learn what a sub tub is, what to include in it, and which art lessons work best when you’re out.

Grab the Guide

Easy K-2 Elementary Art Sub Plans

For Kindergarten–2nd grade, art sub plans should be fun, simple, and low-mess. Clear step-by-step directions and easy clean-up are key. And yes… hide the glitter!

• Scrap Box Collage: Simply set out the scrap box and encourage students to cut out shapes and make creative pictures such as an animal, an abstract design, a house, a robot or monster.
• Art Centers: Set out a variety of options including activities such as building blocks, coloring, play dough, art puzzles, lacing cards or drawing boards.
• Line Drawings: Fill the page with different types of lines (such as zig-zag, wavy, loopy, straight). Then, color in the sections. Use this FREE worksheet and handout about types of lines as inspiration.
• Stencil Drawings: Set out all of the stencils you have and encourage students to make creative drawings with the stencils. Color in the shapes.

Primary Color Hands

This Free Sub Plan is perfect for Kindergarten – 2nd grade. It’s one I use every year with Kindergarten, because it’s very easy for a sub to teach and it reinforces the primary colors.

Grab the Guide

Grade 3-5 No-Prep Art Sub Projects

For grades 3-5, students can handle a bit more complexity, but you still want structure and defined goals. Look for art activities that have a clear design challenge while allowing choice and personalization. At this grade level, it’s still a good idea to keep art supplies to a minimum (don’t break out the acrylic paints or clay!) Here are a few of my favorites!

• Free Balancing Act Sub Plan: Students practice using the art principle of balance as they stack together a bunch of objects into a “tower”. It’s fun, whimsical and creative.
• Design Your Own Flag: Create a personalized flag using symbols, colors, and images that represent who you are.
• Create an Abstract Artwork: Use geometric and organic shapes to design a bold and expressive abstract composition.

Design a Maze

Drawing a maze is a wonderful creative design project that challenges kids’ spatial skills. It also provides for lots of creativity and choice.

Get it Now!

Middle School Art Sub Plan Ideas

A strong middle school art sub plan should have a clear, specific outcome and easy-to-follow, step-by-step written directions. At this age, students need structure and defined expectations, especially when a substitute is present. I used to teach middle school at the beginning of my career and I think the following ideas would work well with 6th-8th grade.

• Zentangle Animals: Lightly sketch an animal silhouette. Fill in the animal with structured patterns. Use black and white OR add color! Use these pattern handouts to inspire pattern ideas.
• Logo Design: Invent a business and create a logo to go with it. Use colors and imagery to represent your business.
• Geometric Shaded Animals: Practice value and shading with these geometric shaded animals or creatures. Free download!
• Design a Creative Alphabet: Practice drawing fonts and play around with typography.

Doodled Name Designs

Create a design using your name. Add patterns and doodles to make it look creative and unique.

Check it out!

Design Challenges for Elementary Art Sub Lessons

Design projects stretch students’ thinking and give them a purpose beyond just free drawing. As they design, they make intentional choices about planning, personalization, message, and how color or shape supports their idea. All of these ideas can be used without the templates. Students can easily draw their own versions. If you’d like handouts to make things easier, they are linked below.

Look & Spy FREEBIE

This free download contains 2 creative art challenges. First, a Look, Find & Spy drawing activity and then an A-Z challenge activity.

Grab the Challenge

• Design a Graffiti Mural: Draw a building and then create an artistic mural on the side of it. What message do you want to show with your mural?
• Fashion Design: Students can design a t-shirt, sweater, dress or costume for a special occasion or to express their own style.

Animals in Cars!

With this design challenge, students will draw cute animals in uniquely designed cars. Inspired by Richard Scarry’s art.

Grab the Free Lesson!

• Creative Trucks: Use your imagination and create a unique design for a truck, car or plane! What will your vehicle be used for? What makes it unique and special?
• Design a Bookmark: Cut paper into rectangles and have students design positive bookmarks for the library. Bonus idea: you can photocopy these so students can swap with each other.

Design a Shoe

Students can either draw their own shoe and decorate it, or you can use shoe templates like these!

Get the Shoes!

Creativity Exercises as an Easy Printable Art Sub Project

There are so many different creativity exercises you could try with your students for a sub plan. Here are two of my favorites!

• Squiggle Stories: These are perfect for Kindergarten – 1st graders! Students draw a squiggle on a piece of paper. Then, they swap with a neighbor. They will then turn the squiggle into something else: a landscape, a creature or an object. Create a short written story about your drawing! Here are some pre-printed Squiggle Story worksheets. Here are two children’s books you can pair with this art project: The Squiggle and One Little Squiggle (Amazon Affiliate links have been used at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting this blog.)

FREE OOPS Sheets

Similar to the Squiggle Stories, students will turn these fingerprints, coffee stains and torn paper into little masterpieces. Read the book Beautiful Oops to introduce the activity!

Get it Here!

Art Choice Boards as Elementary Art Sub Plans

Choice boards are a fantastic way to provide a little bit of structure but give your students plenty of creative freedom! Simply print out the choice board and your students can pick one prompt to use for their drawing. Bonus: These can be used multiple times, as students can choose a different prompt on a different day.

• Here is a FREE sample of an Art Choice Board with drawing prompts!

Monthly Art Choice Boards

This resource comes with 12 different choice boards – one for every month of the year. Each board features 12 different seasonal drawing prompts, perfect for choice and creativity!

Check it Out!

Coloring Pages & Word Searches for an Easy Art Sub Activity

Coloring activities are great to leave as a choice for a day you will be absent or to leave as an extra “early finisher” activity. Encourage careful craftsmanship and blending with different colors. Here are a few fun coloring options.

• FREE Growth Mindset Coloring Pages
• FREE Growth Mindset Coloring Bookmarks
• FREE Kindness Coloring Pages
• Positive Affirmation Coloring Pennants
• Famous Art History Coloring Pages

Starry Night Collaborative Poster

This is a large 40” x 28” collaborative coloring poster. Each student colors one sheet and then they are assembled together to create a giant Starry Night banner!

Grab the Poster!

Word searches are a fun way to reinforce art vocabulary, strengthen pattern and word recognition, and improve spelling skills.

• Check out these art-specific word searches, filled with rich art vocabulary words or make your own!

Art Skill Builder Activities for Sub Plans

Days with a substitute teacher can still be a great opportunity to teach and practice important art skills. Here are a few ideas that work especially well.

• Easy Grid Drawing: Using a grid helps students break an image into smaller sections, making it easier to copy and stay focused. It’s structured, quiet, and great for building confidence with drawing.
• Symmetry Practice: Similar to the grid drawings, practicing drawing images with mirror symmetry helps with balance and careful observation. Students can find a face or symmetrical picture in a magazine, cut it in half, glue it to a piece of paper and then draw the other side.

Elements and Principles of Art Worksheets

This resource has 33 print-and-go worksheets that are great for independent work.

Learn more!

Having a collection of reliable art sub plans means that you won’t have to scramble for lessons at the last minute. When you build a bank of easy and clear lesson plans, your students can stay engaged and creative even when you’re not there. Plan ahead now and you’ll feel prepared for the rest of the year.

The post 30 Easy Elementary Art Sub Plans: No-Prep & Emergency Substitute Lesson Ideas appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

Look, Find & Spy Creative Art Challenge

One of my favorite types of art projects is the kind that lets students make lots of choices and truly own their work. In this “Look, Find & Spy” drawing challenge, students design a busy scene filled with hidden objects, tiny details, and creative surprises. Every finished drawing looks completely different, and students love swapping papers to search for each other’s hidden items.

This is perfect to include in your sub tub or print off for a fun creative art challenge on an odd schedule week.

How the Look, Find & Spy art project works:

⭐ In this activity, students start by choosing a list of objects from a prompt sheet. Kids can add their own objects as well!

⭐ They then plan and draw one detailed scene that includes all of their chosen items hidden throughout the picture. Objects can overlap, blend into the background, or be tucked into small spaces to make the scene fun to search. The drawing can be as simple or complex as they choose.

⭐ When finished, students can trade drawings with a classmate and try to find all of the hidden objects.

⭐ Another variation is to have students brainstorm as a class a list of fun objects and then write the list on the board. Students will have ownership if they come up with a class list!

Why This Art Challenge Is Valuable

👉 Students practice composition, spacing, and balance

👉 They think about overlapping, scale, and placement

👉 Students create interactive artwork, not just drawings

A-Z Drawing Art Challenge

⭐ Another activity similar to this is the A-Z art challenge! Draw your way through the alphabet. This creative art challenge is a fun and open-ended drawing activity where students turn letters into creative ideas. Students begin by making a list of objects for each letter of the alphabet, then combine all of their chosen items into one detailed picture. The goal is to fit every letter into a single scene while making the objects interact in interesting and creative ways.

⭐ This creative art challenge is great for planning, problem-solving, and visual storytelling skills while giving students plenty of choice. Every finished drawing looks completely different, and it works well for a wide range of grade levels. When finished, students can swap papers with a classmate and try to identify which object matches each letter.

Sign up to receive both of the creative art challenges!

Enter your email in the form below and BOTH of these activities will be sent to you. You will also be signed up for the newsletter, but you can unsubscribe at any time. This download includes:

• Look, Find & Spy Creative Art Challenge
• A-Z Drawing Challenge
• Handouts
• Planning Sheets
• Teacher Instructions

⭐ This is perfect to print out and leave for a sub plan.

Grab this Activity!

Enter your email for the free printable Look, Find & Spy activity.

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Related Books:

🩷 Where’s Waldo (Amazon Affiliate link) books are perfect for visual discrimination and careful observation. Students practice careful looking and noticing details.

🩷 Where’s the Artist?: From Cave Paintings To Modern Art – this is a beautiful book, but there are some artworks that show nudity in the book

If you are still looking for a perfect Valentine’s Day art project, check out these 3 fun ideas!

The post Look, Find and Spy Creative Art Challenge for Kids appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.

In this post, you’ll find meaningful and fun Valentine’s Day art projects that work well in real classrooms. A few of the ideas include optional done-for-you resources, but there is still plenty of room for student choice and creativity.

1. A Page of Hearts – A Valentine’s Day Art Project

I call this simple project A Page of Hearts. Start by dividing the paper into nine even sections. I usually draw the grid once, then photocopy it so everyone has the lines ready to go.

In each section, students create a heart using a different material. You can use whatever you already have in the classroom, like pipe cleaners, pom pons, stickers, foam shapes, paint, and markers. This is also a great way to use up odds and ends from your art supply stash.

The goal of this project is to try out different art media!

2. Romero Britto Style Hearts Art Project

Romero Britto is a popular contemporary Pop Art artist who makes artwork with bold lines, colorful patterns and iconic imagery. I have done many versions of this heart project. This picture featured above is from a collaborative canvas I did with students from many grade levels. After dividing the heart into sections, we painted in each section with different colors. When that dried, we added patterns on top!

3. A Map of My Heart – Art Project

This is one I do every year with kindergartners. I first read the book The Shape of My Heart (Amazon Affiliate link). Then, they use one of the templates to draw things inside the heart that they love, whether that be their family, friends, favorite foods, animals… anything they want! If you are interested in the templates, I have the My Heart Map printables here.

4. Neurographic Heart – Valentine’s Day Art Project

Neurographic hearts combine flowing lines, rounded intersections, and blended color inside a heart shape to create bold, eye-catching abstract art. This Valentine’s Day art project is a meaningful way to bring mindfulness, calm focus, and creativity into your art classroom.

Here are more details about neurographic art in general. This lesson can use a heart shape or if a student wants to use a different shape such as a star or emoji, that will work too! Anything goes, be creative!

If you’d like complete step-by-step directions, a handout and a slideshow about making the neurographic hearts, check out my neurographic heart resource package.

5. Yarn Wrapped Hearts – A Fiber Heart Project

This is a beautiful Valentine’s Day art project that really engages students while strengthening fine motor skills. It does require some prep ahead of time, so it works best with a small group.

To prepare, cut heart shapes out of cardboard. I did this part ahead of time for the students and used round white cardboard circles. Students then painted the hearts with Do a Dot paint dotters and set them aside to dry.

Once dry, students used scissors to snip small slots around the edges of the cardboard. Finally, they wrapped different colors of yarn around the hearts. This was such a hands-on and tactile project!

6. Styrofoam Printed Hearts

Printing with styrofoam is a great way for students to experience printmaking. I have a video about making styrofoam prints here if you are unfamiliar with the process. I have done this type of printmaking with kids as young as 1st grade (with extra guidance), but I find the sweet spot is about 5th grade.

Basically, you draw your design (it could be hearts for Valentine’s Day or it can be any theme you’d like) using a ballpoint pen on a styrofoam printing plate. Then, you use a brayer to roll printing ink on the plate. Then you put your paper on top of the plate, rub it and pull off the paper to reveal the print. I recommend watching a tutorial video before trying it, because it’s easier to understand when you see the process. White ink on color paper looks really striking!

7. Pop Art Doodled Hearts

If you’re looking for something much simpler and easy to prep, making doodled Pop Art hearts is creative and fun! Bonus: This project can be done in one class period, or you can stretch it out longer depending on size or quantity of hearts.

Simply divide your paper into four sections and then make patterns and colorful designs on each one. This is very similar to the Page of Hearts lesson I shared above, but the difference is that this one focuses on creating unique patterns using markers and the goal of the Page of Hearts lesson is to experiment with different types of media.

With this art project, you can also tie in the art of Andy Warhol. (This is one of my favorite children’s books about him.)

8. Mixed Media Heart Collage – Art Project

Last but not least is a mixed media heart collage. This is a very low-prep project and a great option when you just need something simple that still feels meaningful.

Start by drawing a large heart on the paper, although any shape will work. Students then create a collage inside the shape, filling in all of the space with different materials.

• patterned washi tape
• Kwik Stix
• magazine clippings
• cut out words
• stickers
• punched out shapes
• painted papers
• any other collage materials you have!

Valentine’s Art Project Bundle

If having materials already prepared would make this easier, three of these art projects are available in a Valentine’s Day Art Projects bundle with handouts, templates, and directions.

Valentine’s Day art does not have to be complicated to be meaningful. I hope one or two of these ideas make planning feel a little easier and give your students a chance to create something they are proud of.

If you found this list helpful, consider saving it so you can come back to it later. And if you have a favorite Valentine’s Day art project of your own, I would love to hear about it.

The post 8 Valentine’s Day Art Projects with Hearts for Kids (Elementary) appeared first on Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects.